Bountiful City is currently building a new City Hall and is going to donate the old. The city is spending millions of dollars and giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars when the sidewalks in the downtown area are so dangerous as not to be fit for use.

There are places on Center Street, Bountiful, between 100 East and 200 East, where the sidewalks are so deteriorated that they cease to exist. There are places on 100 East between 400 North and 500 South where the sidewalks are so dangerous it is safer to walk down the middle of the road. But even the roads are in disrepair and falling apart.

The city seems to be replacing the roads one small patch at a time as the aging plumbing system forces residents to install new lines to their meters. The area between 400 North to 500 South and 200 West to 400 East is the “Bountiful Fort Historical District,” but it is also an area of the worse sidewalks and roads.

It is great that the city can be so generous with the taxpayer’s money, but it would be nice if the taxpayers could see some safety benefits from their own tax dollars.

There are more political motives for the new City Hall. For many years there has been an effort to raise funds to build a new museum at the location of the new city hall, but as the museum is only open two hours two days a week and both of those times in the middle of the day, no one cared about it.

One of the City Councilmen, Tom Tolman, has been the leading proponent of the new museum. What a great surprise it is to learn that the old City Hall will be given in part to the new museum.

Pigs don’t just oink on the national level, Pork Barrel spending is right here in Bountiful, Utah, while the residents of downtown are left with unsafe sidewalks.

No one is talking about this problem, because the city has been very quiet about it, keeping the residents of the Bountiful Fort District in their hovels.